The invention relates to a hand tool for splitting straw into strips. The hand tool includes a holder having a straight channel with a smooth channel wall, and a plurality of blades uniformly distributed about the periphery and oriented radially to the channel axis. The cutting edges of the blades face the front opening of the channel.
Such hand tools are useful for the production of straw mesh and other wickerwork of straw strips because such straw strips are most easily obtained by splitting straw longitudinally.
In a hand tool of this type disclosed in the German Gebrauchsmuster no. 84 36 292, the blades are normal to the channel radius. A stalk of straw to be split is coaxially placed on the star-like blade array and moved through the channel. Each blade is to generate a split along the stalk so that a strip of straw, which exits or can be drawn out of the rear end of the channel, is obtained between two neighboring blades.
It is desirable to split a stalk of straw into strips whose widths are as equal as possible. In the known tool, the stalk must, to this end, be moved through the channel exactly coaxially.